In a move that is quite head scratching from every perspective but Marvel’s own (Well and all the articles across the net spinning this) Marvel has announced today that they are dropping their “Buy a physical comic, get the digital version of said comic” plan. In it’s place they are offering “2 or more” digital comics with each physical comic. Yay right?
Sorry, they’re random back issues. (wut)

As E3 is underway in LA, many new and exciting video games are getting announced. One of the most surprising, at least to comic fans, came near the end of Sony’s conference.

The video opened with the Insomniac Games logo, and I was already excited. Following it was a tracking shot of a Manhattan street with narration by someone, talking about being a hero who is just “a guy from Queens”. I figured I knew what this was, but then the Marvel logo appeared and confirmed it. For the next minute or so, I…ahem…lost my shit.

Spidey’s back!

Insomniac Games, creators of the Ratchet and Clank franchise and the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive, are the developers behind this game which is a new partnership between themselves, Marvel and Sony. This new deal follows Activision losing the Marvel license, which they have held since 1998, in 2014.

Marvel announced today that both they and Sony Pictures have settled on a casting decision for the next Peter Parker, up and coming actor Tom Holland.

Holland is fairly new to the screen, but may be known for last year’s British indie film How I Live Now. One thing for sure is he is not to be confused with Fright Night writer/director Tom Holland (lol). He will portray Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming film which is the first in a co-production deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. As part of this deal, he will also make appearances in other Marvel Studios films, the first of which is heavily rumored to be 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.

Also included in the announcement was the hiring of Jon Watts as director of the upcoming Spider-Man film. Watts has previously directed the upcoming thriller Cop Car, starring Kevin Bacon, and Eli Roth’s Clown.

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If this post reads really wooden and like a corporate post or something like that…sorry. I’m not good with introductions.

And this is how Dark Horse joins Comixology…not with a bang, but a whimper.

The hype train began on Friday when mysteriously and unexpectedly, Comixology simultaneously sent out a cryptic tweet saying just “Coming Soon” (accompanied by a video of Hellboy’s watch ticking on his arm) and launched a countdown site counting to 9 AM Pacific this morning.

Today the clock hit 9 AM and the “magic happened”. Well, at least it did if you like being underwhelmed.

Like Hellboy? Hope so, there is a shitload of him to read.

There are a couple of main problems with Dark Horse joining Comixology…one I sorta expected, and one that is a mind numbingly stupid move.

–They are not adding any way to sync the titles you previously purchased directly from Dark Horse into your Comixology account.
I have to say that I thought this was a long shot anyway, but it is disappointing to see that they didn’t figure out some way to do it. Comixology’s platform is (imo) a much superior reading experience to DH’s, and it sucks that my previously purchased titles are locked to the lesser app of the two.
When asked about it, Comixology said that “This was not possible now, but they would pass it on.” That was a little more optimistic than Dark Horse’s “This is not possible.”

But this move makes more sense when you realize the second thing they did, which is a complete head scratcher…

–Dark Horse is only putting their trade paperbacks, stand alone graphic novels and manga on Comixology.
Yes, you read that right. You can read it directly from their press release if you find it hard to believe. I know I did.
Yes, Dark Horse’s much hyped appearance on Comixology’s platform will exclude all single issues from their catalog, limiting your purchasing options.

This announcement, when it was teased last week, lit the digital comic world on fire. Hell, I was hyped as fuck as well, but the actual launch today has completely taken that hype down to almost nothing.

If you’ve never bought a DH comic digitally and you love Trade Paperbacks, this will be right up your alley. Existing DH customers who buy individual issues? Yeah, this won’t be for you.

Marvel Entertainment pretty much shocked the internet tonight when they dropped a bombshell announcement.

Marvel and Sony Pictures have reached an agreement to integrate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper.

The new Spidey’s first appearance will be in an upcoming Marvel Studios film, but it has not been announced which (My money is on Captain America 3: Civil War).

Following that, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have a deal in place to co-produce a Spider-Man film, which will hit theaters on July 28, 2017 (A date originally taken by third Thor film, Ragnarok). Spider-Man will be recast and rebooted (sans an origin retelling).

The film will be produced by a partnership of Amy Pascal (recent ex-head of Sony Pictures) and Kevin Feige, who has been the mastermind behind the Marvel Cinematic universe. While the new film will be co-produced with the Marvel Studios crew, Sony Pictures will take care of distribution, marketing and will actually own the film.

With this new development, and the new Spider-Man film taking a spot originally used by another film, Marvel has restructured their release schedule through 2019. They are as follows:

Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017

Black Panther – July 6, 2018

Captain Marvel – November 2, 2018

Inhumans – July 12, 2019

All other previously announced Marvel Studio release dates remain unchanged.

DC says ‘enough’ to continuity.

I’m not really the best guy to write about this, I’m not a huge DC guy. News is news though, so here we go. I just won’t have really in depth commentary on the subject.

It was announced earlier today that DC, in the aftermath of their Convergence event, is cancelling a slew of books (27 of their 52 to be exact) and launching 2 dozen new ones in their place. They are also dropping the “New 52” label from all their titles.

Supposedly, this move will also bring about a shift in DC’s storytelling.

“In this new era of storytelling, story will trump continuity as we continue to empower creators to tell the best stories in the industry,” DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan Didio commented.

There are a couple of strange moves in this new strategy. Supergirl is among the titles cancelled, even though a TV series staring the character was just green lighted by CBS.
Also, just as (if not more) puzzling is that both Bizzaro and Bat-Mite are getting their own titles. Yes, Bat-mite.

It will be interesting to see how this new direction plays out for DC. The de-emphasis on continuity will clearly free up the writers in what they can do in future stories, but for continuity freaks like me, it could take a while to adjust to it.